The Ranger

Digest

DENVER -- The company behind a proposed $3 billion power line that would run through Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Nevada expects a key document to be released next week.

TransWest Express LLC general counsel Roxane Perruso says federal officials plan to publicly release a draft environmental impact statement on the project June 28. The document will include a look at potential environmental impacts and alternatives to the proposal. The public will have time to comment on it.

Reality show could have Jackson ties

JACKSON -- It didn't take Dirk Collins and his production team long to get the footage they needed to put together a short video that captured their idea for a TV show.

On May 12, Teton County Search and Rescue was alerted that three men who had set out for Wind Cave in Darby Canyon had not been heard from. The group called its volunteers and began to plan a rescue operation.

An avalanche path was checked, but no signs of human activity were found, so the avalanche scenario was sidelined.

When a second team found three sets of footsteps heading into Wind Cave, attention turned there. Search and Rescue checked the exit to the cave, found an ice wall blocking the passage and deduced that the missing party was trapped on the other side.

With ice axes and drills, the volunteers took turns breaking through the ice. Finally the wall was breached, and Simon Jones, Nathan Smith and Jarin Trazel were freed from their icy prison.

Collins, one of the founders of Teton Gravity Research, started One Eyed Bird Marketing and Entertainment when he split off from the ski film industry. Collins started the new company to pursue film production, among other things.

"We're trying to build an actual documentary show about what these guys do in real life," Collins said. "It would be an ongoing series with more of a documentary style."

State's rig count unchanged

HOUSTON -- Oilfield services company Baker Hughes Inc. says the number of rigs actively exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. decreased by 12 this week to 1,759. The Houston-based company said Friday in its weekly report that 1,405 rigs were exploring for oil and 349 for gas. Five were listed as miscellaneous. A year ago there were 1,966 active rigs. Of the major oil- and gas-producing states, Alaska gained two.. Oklahoma lost five rigs, while Texas and Louisiana lost three, and California and New Mexico lost one each. The counts for Arkansas, Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wyoming were unchanged.